NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE – You come to a gathering of industry folks and, well, you hear things. Here are a couple of items of note…
**********
We’ve been reporting on Rogers Communications planned broadband portal for the better part of a year now and apparently, it is about to come to fruition, with several industry programming sources reporting that November is the launch month.
**********
Insight Sports’ World Fishing Network is nearing some big things, Stateside. It is just about to announce carriage on a major American MSO and it will soon open a Denver office, with their affiliate point man Sean Luxton, relocating there. Happy skiing, Sean!
**********
Moses Znaimer and his associates have been visiting some Canadian BDUs with a new TV channel in mind. Given his focus on baby boomers with Zoomer Media, we figure the channel, tentatively titled The Beautiful Channel, will be a hit with the 45-and-up set and will merge nicely with the S-Vox outlets Znaimer recently agreed to acquire.
**********
When talking today during the CTAM-sponsored session about having “enough” bandwidth for now, thanks to switched digital and the channels Rogers Cable has been able to reclaim, Rogers Communications’ VP product development David Purdy said: “I’m sometimes waiting for that finger from heaven telling me ‘ bullshit, you always need more bandwidth than you think!’” referencing his former boss of course, Ted Rogers. Purdy even did his best Ted impression, to the delight of the crowd.
**********
The new CTAM Canada board was announced Monday, too during the panel session it sponsored. Newly elected members about to begin their two-year terms are CCSA president and CEO Alyson Townsend, Teletoon’s Maryanne Taylor, Janice Lee of JLL & Associates, Corus Entertainment’s Gordon Lee and Canwest Global’s Brian Cuff. Re-elected for another two-years are Harris Boyd of Solara, Rogers Media’s Aivy Reinfelds, Rogers Cable’s Mark Freedman, Astral Media’s Mark Waschulzik and Donia Bloxam of DDK Consulting. Those remaining on the board to serve the rest of their two year term are Hawley Chester of Fox Cable Networks, John Piercy of Atria Networks, Dave Purdy of Rogers Cable, Insight Sports’ Sean Luxton, Astral’s Domenic Vivolo and Source Cable’s Myrna Bontje. The executive and committee heads will be announced at a later date.
